Chris Lane's father resigned to US appeal

The father of Australian baseball player Chris Lane is happy his son's killer has been jailed for life in the US, but is dreading a drawn-out appeal.

Peter Lane.

The father of murdered Australian Chris Lane is happy his son's killer has been jailed for life. (AAP)

The father of Australian baseball player Chris Lane has welcomed a US court's decision to jail his son's killer for life without parole.

But Peter Lane's reaction has been smothered by Chancey Luna's appeal against his murder conviction, and he's dreading two more years of turmoil.

Luna was 16 and a member of the infamous Crips street gang when he fatally shot 22-year-old Chris as he jogged along a street in Duncan, Oklahoma in 2003.

He showed no emotion when an Oklahoma court sentenced him on Tuesday (US time) to life behind bars for the senseless killing, with no possibility of parole.

"It'd be nice to have it done and dusted. But they'll appeal. It'll take two years to get heard, it goes on and on," Mr Lane, his voice heavy with resignation, told AAP on Wednesday.

He said he was satisfied with the sentence, and he'd expected Luna to be handed a life jail term.

As Luna faced court on Tuesday, he wore an orange prison jumpsuit that had the words "Crips for Life" written in black pen on the back.

"Sixteen is a very, very young age, but we are also talking about an innocent man not much older," Judge Ken Graham told Luna.

At Luna's April trial, a jury only took an hour to find the now 18-year-old guilty of first degree murder.


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Source: AAP



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